Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

we’re here, look at us!’ So there seemed no harm in allowing the two ships to pull alongside each other so Shyleen could come over and rejoin Mandalee. At the same time, Pyrah, seeing that her services were no longer required, chose to remain aboard the StormChaser in the cargo hold, out of harm’s way.

Cat decided they should travel directly to Daelen’s secret island. “There might be…” she searched her mind for the unfamiliar words, “technology there that can help him recharge.”

“There might be what there that can help him do what?” her friend asked, confused.

“Best as I understand, a kind of magic-that-isn’t that will help him regain energy.”

Mandalee considered that and offered a weak, mischievous smile, even as her eyelids drooped over her eyes.

“That explanation made a surprising amount of sense…by your standards.”

With that, she passed out.

Cat could feel herself going, too, but fought it off long enough to call for the captain who she knew was hovering nervously outside the door.

“Best speed to StormClaw,” she ordered. “Forget us. Help Daelen, understood?”

The druidess barely saw the salute or heard the, “Yes, Ma’am,” before she was out. The last thing she did hear was that eerie voice again:

White faction second attempt gone. One attempt remains.

*****

Morning came much like any other day, and Catriona noticed that she and Mandalee had been moved to adjacent beds in a strange room filled with more of this technology that seemed to always consist of tiny lights that flashed, sounds that bleeped and screens that displayed incomprehensible information that somehow meant something to somebody. Beside the bed, there hung small, transparent bags of a colourless fluid that dripped into a clear, flexible tube that alarmingly seemed to be stuck in her arm.

Beside her, Mandalee stirred. Her eyes fluttered open and began to assess her surroundings as Cat had done a moment ago.

“Don’t panic, Mandalee,” Cat called out gently.

Mandalee turned her head to face her. “Why is it that whenever someone says, ‘don’t panic,’ it just makes me want to panic? What’s all this…stuff? What’s it doing to us?”

“Well, this ‘stuff’ is technology. Beyond that, I’m not sure,” Cat admitted, “but I don’t think it intends us any harm.”

“Really? Because I have to say, from what I’ve seen of this ‘technology’ so far,” the cleric looked pointedly at the tube in her arm, “I’m not a fan.”

“Well, you’re attuned to nature at least as much as I am,” Cat pointed out, “so you tell me: what do you think is in these bags?”

Mandalee sent out her magical senses and replied. “Water, mostly, with a bit of salt dissolved in it.”

“There, you see? Harmless,” Cat reassured her. “You know how, when we’re healing, sometimes we have to rebalance the patient’s body fluids?”

Her friend nodded. “You think it’s like that?”

“It makes sense. Given what we went through, I’m sure we needed it.”

“True,” Mandalee agreed, “but I like our way better.”

“So do I.” Catriona nodded.

“Sorry, ladies, but I don’t have your magic,” came Daelen’s voice from the doorway. He stepped between their beds. “Welcome to StormClaw Island. Not the first impression I would have liked to give you, but under the circumstances…” he shrugged.

After checking what he called ‘readings’ on the ‘instruments,’ he asked how they were feeling.

“Don’t your ‘instruments’ tell you that?” Mandalee asked, still not sure she liked or trusted him and his ‘technology.’

“They do, but it’s always good to see if they match up with what the patient says.”

Mandalee had to admit she felt better, other than a slight discomfort where the tube went into her arm. Cat echoed the sentiments, so Daelen declared them fit to be ‘discharged.’

“Wait!” Mandalee cried, “You’re going to take our energy? We only just got it back!”

Daelen didn’t understand, but Cat felt she was getting a better handle on the language and explained that ‘discharged’ in this sense wasn’t the opposite of how she’d described ‘recharged’ earlier. Daelen confirmed he just meant to release them from their treatment.

The two friends got up, and Daelen turned his back while they dressed. He apologised for stripping them down to their underclothes while they were unconscious, but it had been necessary to examine them properly and put in the drip.

Mandalee reassured him that she understood, and he could turn around now.

He did so, explaining, “Your arms might be a bit sore for a while.”

The cleric snorted. “I think you’re forgetting you’re talking to a pair of magic healers, Daelen.”

Cat nodded. “We already took care of that.”

“Or you could do that,” Daelen agreed.

He also apologised to Catriona for bursting in on her when she came out of the shower.

Mandalee took the opportunity to remind Daelen how dismissive he had been when they first met, and point out that the shadow warrior had, in fact, needed healing from a mere mortal, after all.

“Lesson learned, I trust?”

Looking suitably admonished, Daelen replied, “Believe me, you two are making me revise my opinions on many things. I was rude and obnoxious to you, and I can only apologise.”

“Well, I think being bitten by one of the deadliest snakes in the cosmos is probably punishment enough,” the assassin allowed.

“Congratulations, by the way,” Cat added, “you have the honour of being the first person in history ever to survive a bite from one of Pyrah’s species. But unless you want to try for the record of surviving a second bite, I suggest you apologise to her, too, the next time you see her.”

“Me? Apologise to her? She was the one who nearly killed me, remember?”

Catriona shrugged. “How would you react if a giant stepped on you the way you stepped on my poor snake?”

“I see your point – I don’t think the giant would be so lucky as to survive. How is she, anyway? I’m surprised my power didn’t fry her.”

Cat shook her head, and told him, “As you know, Pyrah’s Ysirian. She absorbs power from anyone she bites. You gave her the mother of all headaches, but she’ll be even more dangerous than she was before.”

Daelen’s eyes widened.